Zawahiri Urges Syria Rebels to Seek Islamic State

Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has urged rebels to fight to establish an Islamic state in Syria, in an online audio message Sunday in which he also warned France against its military intervention in Mali.

“Let your fight be in the name of Allah and with the aim of establishing Allah’s sharia (law) as the ruling system,” he said in his first message posted on the Internet since last November.

“Do all that you can so that your holy war yields a jihadist Islamic state,” said Zawahiri, adding that such a state would help to re-establish the Islamic “caliphate” system of rule.

“The enemy has begun to reel and collapse,” he said, referring to forces loyal to Assad.